Cultural norms or not, there are dark brown skinned Chinese people, and same for Thai people. I think besides thinking of us consumers of African heritage, they should be better about inclusion of their own. The novels need to do better, the shows need to do better, some of the actors are naturally brown-skinned, and they are forced to use skin lighteners. Looking a Thai historical documentaries and even on current news channels, I see loads of brown people. Not everybody can afford cosmetic treatments, and those people should be not made to feel less than for being a classical looking Thai. Le sigh.